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Questions Surround Waived Fees In Spa City

Saratoga Springs City Hall
Lucas Willard
/
WAMC

A controversy regarding waived water connection fees in Saratoga Springs has triggered an investigation by state authorities and drawn attention to the high-stakes political scene in the Spa City.

The scandal started earlier this month, when former Director of Public Works Bill McTygue presented a report to local media alleging administrative abuse by the current Department of Public Works.

McTygue, who served in the Public Works department under his brother and former Commissioner Tom McTygue, began making Freedom of Information Law requests on waived water connection fees.

According to McTygue’s report, which was provided to WAMC, from building projects dating from August 2011 to November 2013,  Public Works waived or failed to collect nearly $900,000 in fees before certificates of occupancy was issued to developers.

“I couldn’t sit idly by and let the current commissioner break the rules and misinterpret that section of the city code that has established this very effective water connection fee program for the city,” said McTygue.

McTygue, a Democrat, began his investigation after Commissioner Anothony “Skip” Scirocco, a Republican, began a new term in January. McTygue lost to Scirocco in 2013, but denies the release of the report is for political reasons.

“I looked at what’s been going on, I felt that I had an obligation to step forward and even put my name to the claim and to the report. I thought long and hard about that because I knew there would be some question in the community about my motive.”

Under city law, the commissioner has the ability to grant waivers for new water connections if a developer shows significant improvement to the city’s water infrastructure. To be considered, a new water main pipe installed by the developer must be 12 inches or greater.

The state comptroller’s office is currently investigating the situation. Saratoga Springs mayor Joanne Yepsen, who called for an independent investigation after news of the waivers broke, said many questions remain.

“We’re not quite sure why the Commisisoner of Public Works has said two different things, one he didn’t know about it, two, he did know about it, he’s able to do this. Legislatively, it clearly indicates in the ordinance that he needs to come and get city council approval. And if these are such good financial deals for the city, then he should really be bringing this to the city council and congratulating himself for enabling the city to get such good deals with these developers.”

Commissioner Scirocco could not be reached by telephone Thursday or Friday. His office deflected requests for comment by saying questions would have to be passed through the city attorney.

But Scirocco has been open to the press during the past few weeks. In an article published in the Daily Gazette on October 16th, Scirocco said his office would cooperate with investigators and said, “We’re not trying to hide anything.”

It was reported in the same article Scirocco suggested the ordinance concerning the waivers be updated, saying pipes smaller than 12 inches are more than adequate for the city’s needs, and that in each instance the value of city infrastructure improvements by the developers is greater than the waived fees.

At a city council meeting Tuesday after a presentation regarding a building project by Stewart’s Shops president Bill Dake, Scirocco delivered a statement regarding the company’s plans to upgrade water a water main.

Scirocco said for the project in question, it would likely cost the city $700,000, while Stewart’s estimated the cost to do it themselves at $500,000.

Scirocco said the same could be said for other projects involving developer-paid improvements.

“It’s a tremendous benefit for the city to get aging infrastructure updated at little or no cost to the city by waiving connection fees that are very limited in their use. Once again, this is a long establish practice by the city that was utilized long before I took office.”

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, former City Attorney Sarah Burger addressed the council. Burger is representing Stan Borden, a senior engineering technician in the Public Works department, who officially signed off on the waivers in question.

“I do believe that there’s only one person on this council that knows the truth about what happened, and on behalf of my client I ask you, please, Commissioner, do the right thing.”

Lucas Willard is a reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011.
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